First Roll: Kentmere 400

It has been awhile since I have ventured out of my comfort zone and thought about trying a different film stock. When it comes to the big ones such as Kodak Tri-X & T-Max or Ilfords HP5+, FP4, Delta 3200 etc. Ive always loved them. However the buy in is getting pretty steep for me as a hobbyist portrait photographer. I’ve been seeing a bunch of others using Kentmere 400 as an affordable alternative. It has the connotation of being a “newbie” film stock for those new to black and white film. If you know me, this is not my first rodeo with film.

I rated this stock at box speed, 400 ISO. I love the tonality this black and white has. It sort of has an older film stock feel to it, which I won’t complain about! It doesn’t have a modern look to it. I think specifically in the highlights it gives that older black and white charm. My verdict for this film stock is: I loved it! Without trying a roll first, I bought a 120 brick (10 rolls) of this so I guess that’s a good thing I found it worth to have around in the film fridge.

For you super, duper nerds. I developed this roll with HC-110 using dilution B (1:31) for developing. Then DSLR scanned the negatives, turning these into positives with the amazing Negative Lab Pro software!

Boise Foothills With Abi

This past summer I met up with a newer creative named Abi. We met via instagram, where she had reached out curious if I’d ever be interested in doing a shoot together. I was stoked because I could instantly tell that her style would be something I would absolutely enjoy. When we were planning this shoot I knew I wanted some traditional summer coloring. I knew there was this pocket of random orange sand in the Military Reserve in Boise. I knew the contrasting colors of green sage and desert shrubs that hadn’t been cooked to death by the summer heat would still be around. Abi showed me a few outfits and when I saw this dress, I stopped and told her this and only this outfit would be EPIC for what I was envisioning.

Side note for the photo nerds viewing/reading. I used a diffusion filter at 1/4 strength for these photos to really give that softer, vintage lens look. I know these have become quite trendy and I felt it was time to stop being a pompous photographer and just enjoy something that others have found as a popular tool. I can say as much as I enjoyed it, it’s for sure NOT the tool for every photoshoot. For this shoot it paired well and I’m stoked how it turned out.

Studio With Jerusha

It’s been a quite a bit of time since I have been in the studio. So I kicked off 2023 working with Jerusha in the studio and we agreed on two amazing colors for the background! I’ve wanted to work with this red-ish backdrop color for quite some and it did NOT disappoint. Jerusha and I had no real plan for this shoot, just sort of a hang out and get some shots to be creative. Last year I kicked off shooting with J too, so maybe this will just be an annual thing for us ha!

While all the digital shots came out great, I shot 2 rolls of Kodak Pro Image 100. I was stoked to get those developed and the worst part was….. the camera I was gifted by a great uncle had the incorrect shutter speed so I had just clear strips of film.. RIP the film and the 20 bucks for developing.

Downtown With Katie

I’ve honestly been terrible at updating all my work on this. Its unfortunate that I give Instagram more love than my actual website. At least here I can show whatever I want and also get to show bigger images rather than those tiny little image tiles haha.

Anyways, this was a shoot I did with Katie a few summers ago. She was a roommate of one of my friends and I had seen them create some fun portrait work together so I asked if she’d be interested in working together and she happily agreed to meet up and shoot. One thing I remember about this shoot with Katie, it was so ‘effin hot. We tried to hide in the shade as much as possible because it was when Boise was being hit with its usual 1 week of pure hell heat.

One of the main ideas I wanted with this shoot was to play with some color theory and focus on using Katies hair color and pant color to compliment or contrast our locations backgrounds. I started neutral with the white wall, moving to the orange and then finishing the shoot in this alley with an awesome blue wall.

Enjoy :D